Grand opening: College football starts, playoff talk begins

With little competition right before the baseball pennant races heat up and the middle weekend of U.S. Open tennis, college football opens with a long holiday weekend of games, concluding with No. 1 Ohio State trying to avenge its last loss at Virginia Tech on Labor Day night.

True, many of the matchups are of the hammer vs. nail variety, with Power Five teams facing low-level Group of Five foes. Or those FBS vs. FCS matchups, which produce about 10 blowouts for every upset (Villanova over UConn if you're looking for an FCS upset).

But there are plenty of enticing matchups in Week 1. And even in this playoff era where second chances are more plentiful, one loss can be one too many. Just ask TCU and Baylor.

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We start the season by introducing a new feature to the picks, reaching into the Twitter bag to answer a few questions from readers and take requests on games to pick outside the Top 25:

Q: How bad is the Illinois job? - @BSargentOKC

A: My perception of Illinois is a program that should be more successful than it is. That if it can just get the right coach it should be able to match the type of success Iowa has had through the years. Hawkeyes fans may be tired of Kirk Ferentz, but if you offered Illinois fans 12 bowl games and four double-digit-win seasons in 14 years, I'd bet most would sign up.

The reality is during the 17 seasons Ferentz has been at Iowa, Illinois has had five winning seasons and won more than seven games three times - which strongly suggests there is more than just a coach problem in Champaign.

Q: What are the chances there will be four or more undefeated teams at season's end? - @Jamie-crane

A: An unbeaten team from one of the Power Five conferences not getting into the College Football Playoff would almost certainly create the greatest outcry and calls to expand it.

The good news for the selection committee is the odds are stacked against that happening. During the 12-year BCS era, only twice (2004 and `09) did more than four teams go into the bowls unbeaten, and never were the five teams from what we now consider the Power Five (Big Ten, Big 12, Atlantic Coast Conference, Pac-12 and Southeastern Conference).

Q: Sleeper team to make a push for the CFB playoff? - @SydneyCarton1

A: Defining a dark horse is the first step.

We'll make the line outside the AP preseason top 15 for this discussion and offer up Oklahoma. The Sooners are coming in with relatively low expectations after sinking to 8-5 last season. The combination of new quarterback Baker Mayfield and new offensive coordinator Lincoln Riley should drastically improve the passing game. The running game with Samaje Perine is already strong. The pass defense needs to be better, but I have a hard time buying that the Sooners are simply no match for TCU and Baylor in the Big 12.

The picks:

THURSDAY

No. 2 TCU (minus 14 1/2) at Minnesota

Gophers could use some snow to slow down the Horned Frogs. Forecast calls for a low of 70 degrees. ... TCU 34-17.